Recipe For Thai Chicken

Thai chicken green curry is a very popular Thai recipe, which is so named because of its characteristic green color. In Thailand, curry pastes are one of the most important ingredients which is used for cooking curries.

Thai green chicken curry is very easy to make and calls for very simple ingredients. But you may not be able to find certain ingredients like pea eggplants and kaffir lime leaves.

Required Utensils

Cooking Procedure

1. Take a clean and dry sautepan and place it on the hob. Lit the flame and turn the knob to maintain it on medium low. Then take the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and the black peppercorns and throw them into the sautepan once it starts smoking.

Toast the spices by shaking the sautepan constantly until it starts to liberate a wonderful aroma. It is necessary to shake the pan constantly to prevent the spices from burning. Once the spices start popping, turn off the flame and set aside the pan to cool down the spices.

2. While the spices are cooling down, take the cloves of garlic and thrash them with the back of your knife. Then peel off their husks. Next, take the shallots and cut them in half. Peel off their skin and then slice the shallots thinly. Follow that by slicing the galangal, green chilies and the cilantro roots.

After that, take the lemongrass and slice them diagonally into 1 inch long pieces. Follow that by thinly slicing the rind of kaffir lime. Finally, take the eggplants and rinse them thoroughly under running water by rubbing them with your hands. Once completely rinsed, cut off the stem from the eggplants and then cut them into quarters.

3. Once everything is ready and the toasted spices are cooled, fetch a mortar and pestle and then put the toasted spices into the mortar. Grind the spices by pounding and dragging them with the pestle. But avoid pounding the spices by holding the pestle straight. It will make the spices bounce out of the mortar.

Once you get a smooth powder, put the galangal slices into the mortar and pound them by holding the pestle at an angle and by dragging them towards you to tear the fibres. Once the galangal pieces are pounded, add the lemongrass slices and pound them as well. Continue pounding the added ingredients until they turn into a smooth paste.

4. Follow that by adding the kaffir lime rind slices and the crushed garlic cloves. Add a pinch of salt to the mixture to pound the ingredients easily, as the salt acts as an abrassive and helps to pound the ingredients easily and much faster. Next, add the shrimp paste and the cilantro roots.

Pound the added ingredients with the rest of the ingredients and then add-in the green chili slices. Pound the green chilies nicely and then finally add the shallots. Pound the shallots until you get a fine and lump-free paste. You will know that the paste is ready when it becomes aromatic.

5. Once you are ready with the green curry paste, spoon it out of the mortar and keep it aside on a plate for later use. Now take the kaffir lime leaves and pull out the leafy portion from the mid vein. Next, pluck the pea eggplants from their stems and rinse them under slow running water.

Finally, take the chicken pieces and trim off excess fat from them. Then cut the chicken into small bite sized pieces. Once done, take a deep skillet and place it on the hob. Lit the flame and set it on medium. Then pour 5-6 tablespoons of coconut milk into the skillet.

6. Stir and cook the coconut milk until it starts releasing the oil and then throw-in the required amount of the prepared green curry paste. Now turn down the flame to extreme low and stir the mixture until the paste completely mixes with the coconut milk and starts to liberate a greenish oil from it.

Continue stirring the mixture until it turns aromatic and the oil of the green curry paste starts floating at the top. Once that happens, dump the chicken pieces over the green curry mixture and stir to coat them with the curry. Stir and cook the chicken in the curry for 7-8 minutes or until the chicken is partially cooked and then add the quartered eggplants to it.

7. Stir the eggplants into the curry. Cook the mixture stirring it occassionally for 5-7 minutes and then pour the remaining coconut milk and 2 cups of water into the skillet. Give a light stir to the mixture and then turn up the flame to medium low. Cover up the skillet with a lid and let the mixture simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and turns tender.

Once done, remove the lid and add salt, fish sauce and sugar to season the mixture. Stir to combine the seasonings with the curry and then stir-in the pea eggplants. Finally, add the kaffir lime leaves and the red chili slices to the curry. Turn up the flame to high and wait until it comes to a boil. Once the curry comes to a boil, durn down the heat to low and stir-in the fresh basil leaves. Cook the curry for 1 minute more and then serve it with warm cooked rice.